Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
| version = 1.01 (PC retail) 2.0 (PC/PS2/Xbox retail) 3.0 (Steam) | released = October 26, 2004 PlayStation 2 Windows Xbox Xbox 360 (XBLM) October 20, 2008 Mac OS X November 12, 2010 PlayStation 3 (PSN) iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, Windows Phone December 2013 | genre = Action-adventure | modes = Single-player, multiplayer | platforms = PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox, Mac OS X, Xbox 360 (XBLM), PlayStation 3 (PSN), iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, Windows Phone | media = Optical disc, download }} Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an open world action- adventure video game developed by Rockstar North in the United Kingdom which was published by Rockstar Games. The game was first released on October 26, 2004. A sequel to the successful title Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), San Andreas is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall. Gameplay San Andreas is structured similarly to the previous two games in the series. The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, affording the player a large, open world environment in which to move around. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, eating, running, sprinting, swimming, climbing (the first GTA game in which swimming and climbing are possible) and jumping as well as using weapons and various forms of hand to hand combat. Players can drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, buses, semis, boats, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, trains, tanks, motorcycles and bikes. Players may also import vehicles rather than steal them. The open, non-linear environment allows players to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain cities and content, they are not required as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not taking on a storyline mission, players can free-roam and look around the cities, eat from the restaurant, or cause havoc by attacking people and causing destruction. Creating havoc can attract unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the authorities. The more chaos caused, the stronger the response: police will handle "minor" infractions (attacking pedestrians, pointing guns at people, stealing vehicles, manslaughter, etc.), whereas SWAT teams, the FBI, and the military respond to higher wanted levels. The player can partake in a variety of optional side missions that can boost their character's attributes or provide another source of income. The traditional side missions of the past games are included, such as dropping off taxi cab passengers, putting out fires, driving injured people to the hospital and fighting crime as a vigilante. New additions include burglary missions, pimping missions, truck and train driving missions requiring players to make deliveries on time, and driving/flying/boating/biking schools, which help players learn skills and techniques to use in their corresponding vehicles. Not all locations are open to the player at the start of the game. Some locales, such as pay 'n spray, gyms, and shops, become available only after completing certain missions. Likewise, for the first portion of the game, only Los Santos and its immediate suburbs are available for exploration; unlocking the other cities and rural areas again requires the completion of certain missions. If the player were to try travel in locked locations they would end up attracting the attention of SWAT teams. Unlike GTA III and Vice City, which needed loading screens when the player moved between different districts of the city, San Andreas has no load times when the player is in transit. The only loading screens in the game are for cut-scenes and interiors. Other differences between San Andreas and its predecessors include the switch from single-player to multiplayer Rampage missions (albeit not in the PC version), and the replacement of the 'hidden packages' with spray paint tags, hidden camera shots, horseshoes, and oysters to discover. The camera, fighting, and targeting controls were reworked to incorporate concepts from another Rockstar game, Manhunt, including various stealth elements, as well as improved target crosshairs and a target health indicator which changes from green to red to black depending on the target's health. The PC version of the game implements mouse chording; the player has to hold the right mouse button to activate the crosshairs, and then click or hold at the left mouse button to shoot or use an item, such as a camera. In addition, players can swim and climb walls for the first time in the series. The ability to swim has a great effect on the player as well, since water is no longer an impassable barrier that kills the player (although it is possible to drown). For greater firepower, players can also wield dual firearms or perform a drive-by shooting with multiple gang members. Due to the size of San Andreas, a waypoint reticle on the HUD map can be set, aiding the player in reaching a destination. Plot In 1992, Carl "C.J." Johnson returns to Los Santos after spending five years living in Liberty City when his brother Sean "Sweet" Johnson calls to inform him of their mother's murder. Shortly after leaving the airport, Carl is intercepted by a group of corrupt LSPD C.R.A.S.H. officers led by Frank Tenpenny, with whom Carl has a history. Tenpenny implicates Carl in the murder of a police officer that Tenpenny himself committed and threatens to frame him for it if he does not cooperate. Carl returns to his former home on Grove Street and reunites with Sweet as well as fellow members of his old gang Ryder and Big Smoke. Finding that the Grove Street Families (GSF) have lost much of their territory while he was gone, Carl decides to stay in town. Working with the others to re-establish the GSF, Carl gradually restores the gang to power, driving off the rival Ballas and Vagos gangs and reducing the amount of drugs on the street. While en route to join Sweet for a final stand against the Ballas, Carl is contacted by his sister Kendl's boyfriend, Cesar Vialpando. Cesar brings Carl to a garage where they witness Smoke and Ryder meeting with Tenpenny and a group of Ballas. Suspecting a set-up, Carl rushes to Sweet's aid, but the police arrive shortly afterward. Sweet is thrown in jail while Tenpenny takes Carl into the countryside and dumps him there. With the GSF in shambles, Smoke and Ryder, now openly allied with the Ballas, take over Los Santos and flood the streets with drugs. Exiled in the countryside, Carl works with Cesar's cousin Catalina to make money by carrying out several heists in the area. He also befriends a hippie called The Truth and a blind triad leader named Woozie. After winning the deed to a garage in San Fierro in a race against Catalina and her new boyfriend, Carl goes there with The Truth, Cesar and Kendl to get it up and running so they can make a living. While in San Fierro, Carl crosses paths with the Loco Syndicate, Smoke and Ryder's drug connection. Carl infiltrates the organization and identifies its leader, the mysterious Mike Toreno. Along with Cesar and the Triad, Carl kills Ryder and the other Loco Syndicate leaders, Jizzy-B and T-Bone Mendez, and shoots down Toreno's helicopter. Despite Toreno's apparent death, Carl is soon contacted by him in the desert. Toreno reveals that he is actually a government agent and enlists Carl's help in several shady operations in exchange for Sweet's freedom. Meanwhile, Carl travels to Las Venturas, where Woozie invites him to become a partner in the Four Dragons Casino, where the organization is facing problems from the mob families that control the city. Seeking to wrest control of Venturas from them, Carl helps Woozie plot a robbery of the mob's casino and gains the mob's trust through various jobs. Eventually the heist is carried out successfully, earning the Triad a place of power in Las Venturas. Carl also encounters disgraced rapper Madd Dogg, whom he rescues from a suicide attempt. Grateful, Madd Dogg asks Carl to be his manager once he returns from rehab. Tenpenny, fearing his arrest is inevitable, tasks his partner Eddie Pulaski with killing Carl and disposing of the body of another C.R.A.S.H. officer Jimmy Hernandez, who was informing on them. The wounded officer manages to attack, causing Pulaski to flee, but Carl pursues and kills him. Madd Dogg returns from rehab, prompting Carl to return to Los Santos to get his music career started again. Toreno contacts Carl for one last favor, and finally has Sweet released from prison. Now rich and successful, Carl attempts to cut Sweet in on his businesses, but Sweet becomes angry that he ran away and let their home be taken over by drug dealers to make his fortune. While Carl helps Sweet once again drive off the rival gangs, Tenpenny is tried for several felonies but the charges are surprisingly dropped, prompting a city-wide riot. Sweet soon learns that Smoke is holed up in a fortified crack den in the city, and seeking to stop the flow of drugs on the street, he and Carl go there to confront him. Carl enters the building alone, fighting his way to the top floor and battling Smoke. As Smoke dies, Tenpenny appears and steals Smoke's drug money, intending to use it to leave the city before the rioters kill him. Tenpenny rushes out of the building and Carl and Sweet pursue him as he flees in a fire truck. Tenpenny loses control of the truck, driving off a bridge and crashing at the entrance to the Grove Street cul-de-sac. Carl and his friends watch as Tenpenny crawls from the wreckage and dies of his injuries. In the aftermath Carl's family and friends arrive at the Johnson house for a meeting. As his friends and allies celebrate their success, Carl turns to leave. When Kendl asks where he's going, he replies, "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening." 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